Public & Digital History
Digital History
Chicana/o Activism in the Southern Plains through Time and Space
This publicly-facing digital mapping project is displayed at PlainsMovement.com. The project features an interactive map and timeline along with a collection of materials that detail the Chicana/o Movement in the southern Great Plains. The interactive map and timeline demonstrate when and why the Chicana/o Movement emerged in the Southern Plains. The earliest events that are clearly part of the movement were student-led and aimed at attaining educational equity.
However, the digital history project reveals that instances of police brutality were the principal events that spurred the Plains Chicana/o Movement. Overall, the project shows that the Southern Plains were home to a burgeoning wing of the Chicana/o Movement. Moreover, the region’s portion of the Chicana/o Movement elucidates how it emerged across the country, forming a national social justice movement.
Selected Publications for the Wider Public
“Border enforcement has been deadly by design”
The Washington Post, January 20, 2023.
“Invading other countries to ‘help’ people has long had devastating consequences“
The Washington Post, September 10, 2021.
“Remembering Cesar Chavez’s Tactics is Key to Empowering Workers and Consumers”
The Washington Post, March 31, 2021.
“Mapping the Chicana/o Movement in the American Heartland
In Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook, edited byBeth Fischer and Hannah Jacobs. 2020.
“Uncovering the Interior Border/Frontera and Building Community Through Digital Humanities”
United Fronteras. September 21, 2020.
“American Civilization and Its Jagged Frontier: The Depiction of the U.S.-Mexico Border as Rough Country”
ANZASA Online (blog). July 20, 2020.
“Dynamic Digital Methods for Integrating Local History into Public History Institutions and the K-16 Classroom; a Western History Association Sponsored Workshop”
The Future of the Past (blog). November 26, 2018.
“The Digital Present and Future of the Past: Digital History at the 2018 Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting”
The Future of the Past (blog). April 23, 2018.
“Mass Migrant Deaths in the Borderlands and the Politics of Mexican-Americanism”
Borderlands History (blog). January 30, 2018.
“Digitally Mapping the Plains’ Chicana/o Movement”
The Future of the Past (blog). August 30, 2017.
“Aztlan Park,” “Brown Plaza and Casa de la Cultura,” “La Mujer Obrera,” “Pike Park,” “San Elizario”
Hispanic Texans: Journey from Empire to Democracy, A Guide for Heritage Travelers. Austin: Texas Historical Commission, 2015.
“Where Does Chicano Come From and What Does Chicano Mean?”
El Editor (Lubbock, TX), October 24, 2013.
Research Report
Lead Author. Application for Proposed San Elizario Historical Arts District, San Elizario, Texas. Austin, TX: Office of State Representative Mary E. González, 2013.
